Police arrested three men in a crime spree that wound through northern Colorado, beginning with a carjacking and shooting at a Loveland Walmart that left one man injured, several car chases in two counties by different agencies and a second car theft.

The victim of the Loveland carjacking had been beaten and shot. He was taken to North Colorado Medical Center. His condition has not been released.

Two of suspects were identified by police as Eric Allen Mecseji, 22, for Fort Collins, and Brady Michael Murr-Andrews, also 22. Murr-Andrews was described by police as being homeless.

Both men are being held on suspicion of multiple charges including attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, menacing, robbery, vehicle eluding, motor vehicle theft and first degree burglary.

A third suspect, Jose Gonzales, was taken into custody, without incident, later in the 200 block of E. 57th St., Loveland, police said.

Loveland police first received a call at 2:33 a.m. shooting in a Walmart parking lot at 250 W. 65th Street. A witness reported hearing a gunshot.

As officers arrived at the parking lot, they saw an SUV fleeing at high speed, according to a news release by Sgt. Mike Halloran, Loveland police spokesman.

Police engaged their lights and siren but a suspect driving the SUV only sped up, Halloran said. Following a brief chase the officers stopped pursuing the suspects, following department safety protocols.

Larimer County sheriff’s deputes spotted the fleeing vehicle and took up the chase in east Loveland, Halloran said. The driver fled east on U.S. 34 from the deputies, who also quickly discontinued the chase.

Greeley police next spotted the SUV and pulled it over, but when the vehicle stopped the driver and a passenger took off running. They stole another car.

A 48-year-old Fort Collins man had been left behind in the first stolen vehicle.

Greeley officers attempted to stop the suspects in the newly stolen vehicle. The suspects fled and a pursuit ensued westbound on U.S. 34 towards Loveland.

Larimer County sheriff’s deputies placed Stop Sticks on the road just across the border between Weld and Larimer counties.

The tires of the stolen car deflated and the suspects stopped on the northbound on-ramp to Interstate 25 from U.S. 34. Authorities arrested the two suspects.

Loveland officers found a gun they believe was used to shoot the victim, Holloran said. The victim and the suspects are acquaintances.

“Investigators believe that this assault was a by-product of that relationship,” he said.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.

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